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Thursday, 28 August 2014

Premature celebrations

The Jackson/Wigley Morgan partnership

Following the Church in Wales Governing Body vote to allow women to become bishops their Archbishop, Dr Barry Morgan, said, "While we, as bishops, welcome the decision that women can now be ordained as bishops in Wales, we recognise that there are some people who do not. We want to make sure that adequate provision is made for them so that they will still feel valued and accepted in the Church and will continue to worship and minister alongside us. We have been entrusted to draw up a Code of Practice within a year and we are keen to consult as widely as possible with church members in order to reflect their views as best we can." [My emphasis - Ed.]

Under the Bench of Bishops' original Bill, as soon as practicable after the promulgation of the Canon the Bench had to establish a Working Party which would (a) invite, receive and consider proposals for a scheme of provision for Members of the Church in Wales who, for reasons of conscience, dissent from the provisions of section 1 of the Bill to permit women bishops and (b) produce recommendations to the Bench of Bishops for such scheme of provision.

Recommendations made pursuant to the provisions of subsection (1) of the Bill and agreed by the Bench of Bishops were to be included in a Bill introduced into the Governing Body of the Church in Wales within two years of the promulgation of the original Bill.

That commitment seemed clear. An accommodation similar to that being worked on in the Church of England would allow all members of the Church the opportunity to flourish but having achieved their primary objective of allowing women to be admitted to the Episcopate through the Jackson/Wigley Amendment, that commitment under a voluntary Code of Practice is already looking pretty thin, adding to the suspicion that the Amendment merely provided Dr Morgan with the opportunity to maintain his position that there would be alternative pastoral and sacramental provision 'over his dead body' despite the costly charade of inviting submissions and organising diocesan meetings throughout the Province to receive and consider proposals for alternative provision.

As the date to allow women bishops draws near, arrangements have been made to celebrate the success of the women bishops campaign - jumping the gun in the process. For those who wish to remain true to the Catholic faith there is not even a whisper of what the bishops have in mind. According to Credo Cymru (here) the bishops' scheme will be presented as a fait accompli after women bishops become legal in the Church in Wales.

This is contrary to the spirit of the amendment to the Bill which, according to the accompanying explanatory notes (here), aimed for a shortened one-year lead time from the previous two years to:-

a) impart a sense of urgency to the Bench that a Code of Practice should be agreed

without delay, but

b) provide a period of time in which the Bench may reassure as wide a range of

people as possible of their good faith, and desire to give a sense of security in the

future, to individuals holding different views.

The amendment sought "explicitly to restore the relationship of Trust between the
body of the Church in Wales and the Bench of Bishops, and to reassert the desire
for this trust to lie at the heart of the bishops’ ministry and their role as a focus for
unity."

There has been no sense of urgency or reassurance of a sense of security for the future of those members of the Church for whom provision has to be made under the Code of Practice. It remains to be seen if good faith suffers a similar fate.

The decision to allow women bishops was greeted at Governing Body with wild applause. No doubt there will be similar expressions of ecstasy at the Crossing the Threshold event in Llandaff on 4 September which ends with a Eucharist at 7.45pm in Llandaff Cathedral when the President will be the Rt Rev’d Geralyn Wolf of the US Episcopal Church.

As she stands at the Altar, she and the congregation may wish to reflect on the fact that her presence there appears at this point in time to be as the result of a deception. Not good news or the best start for women in the Episcopacy in the Church in Wales!

16 comments:

Which Canon of the C in W allows Geralyn Wolf to preside, when she doesn't have PTO (and therefore hasn't had the safeguarding/DBS clearance to which everyone else is subject). Again, Barry the Bastard breaking his own rules when it suits him. I wonder if those attending this uncanonical celebration will be welcomed by the Dean - or will he still be on his unexplained sabbatical? May be Peggy the Pilot will be shipped-in again. I don't imagine Janet Henderson has been invited to preach, has she?

According to a Church in Wales Provincial Press Release, Canon Mary Stallard, chaplain of St Joseph’s Anglican and Catholic School, will preach.http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/news/2014/08/crossing-the-threshold-event-marks-new-women-bishops-law/

For what to expect see also http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/structure/representative-body/publications/downloads/theology-wales-back-issues/theology-wales-the-ordination-of-women-to-the-episcopate/women-bishops-in-the-church-in-wales-canon-mary-stallard/

In the U.S. Episcopal church we were told this was "moving forward" because of "the facts on the ground" (for example with the first W.O.'s in the 1970's). Enough people shrugged their shoulders and shuffled along that there were no consequences. The progressives learned that there are no personal consequences to premature actions, and the rest is history.

I see. So Byzantine Barry is throwing Mary Stallard a crust after he has deliberately overlooked for jobs that were given to Peggy the Pilot and the Golf Caddy. Just further evidence that the Archbishop doesn't want people who can think for themselves and will challenge him in the inner sanctum.

I am informed that Bishop Gregory Cameron was charged with the task of spearheading the Code of Practice, and I now hear that a rift has developed between the Archbishop and + Gregory.Furthermore I still remember ++ Barry clearly saying on television that the final decision will rest with the Bench, and this means ,I suppose, in spite of whatever proposals were put forward around the dioceses at their invitation. Yes, the rest will be as the history in the U.S.

Ah. Now we're getting closer to the reality behind the rhetoric. +Gregory, of course, has a much sharper intellect than Byzantine Barry, He may be a supporter of womens' ordination, but he is a friend to those who are not. He also has a much firmer grasp of the history of the Church than the Archbishop has ever had, and knows what is legally and pragmatically possible. Byzantine Barry won't like any of that. It will have caused the chip on the archiepiscopal shoulder to swell even further. When is this nonsense of a man going to stop demeaning the Office of primate and shove off into retirement? The golf course's loss will be our considerable gain.

It is about time that the CIW wakes upto the fact that we have been led by a person with his own agender and followed by a bench of bishops who for some reason have no thoughts of their own wake up and smell the coffee it all stinks stand up stand up for Jesus and return to the true faith.

‘in the true faith’ it is too late, your brand of coffee has gone off, it’s too ‘fair trade’. Your bishops have contaminated the brand. Deep down, really deep down, you know the solution. The premier brand says RITA on the label – ‘Rome Is The Answer’. Be brave, lead your people into the Ordinariate.

Most people with a brain realise Bazza is a liar and arch deceiver so the best thing to do is stay away and boycott Bazza and his 'babes' altogether.Above all else, don't put money onto the collection plate.You have been warned.His ++Darkness will probably use the occasion to swipe the money for his 'discretionary' funds.

The Church in Wales needs to wake up, yes! Is it not supposed to be organised along consultative and democratic principles?Legislation is supposed to be the job of the Governing Body? ++ Barry is a control freak: he manipulates the election of diocesan Bishops to ensure that he had a Bench of puppets.In order to ensure that key votes go his way he has pruned the membership of the Governing Body and has co-opted evangelical non-conformists observers . Even if the co- opted members do not vote ,their presence is an influence.

Joseph golightly is certainly right : we should consider that within the Ordinariate we can belong to the Apostolic Church,which ,by reason of forthcoming ecumenical Bishops, membership of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church is to be denied by ++ Barry.The Sacraments of the Church are vital for the nourishment of our souls,and I cannot foresee how their administration to us may be maintained with the concept of ecumenical Bishops, let alone the confusion of women in the priesthood. If we wish to claim to be part of the universal Catholic Church ,then we have no right to make independent decisions of such major significance ,viz the ordination of women. The Church in Wales is a tiny percentage of the worldwide Catholic Church, and the ordination of women has now made unity ( as pursued by ARCIC) very very remote.There is a nationwide Ordinariate Exploration Day on September 6th,and locations are to be found on the website of the Personal Ordinariate.

You can't join the Ordinariate and remain an Anglican, despite all their claims to maintain an "Anglican patrimony" - which apparently consists of total obedience to Rome, dressed up in pre-conciliar tat. Out of the frying pan, into the fires, if you exchange Anglicanism for that.

http://fieldofdreams2010.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/two-cathedrals-two-religions/. May I refer you Aglicanus to this most interesting article,which will help to explain things a little. The truth is that within the Church in Wales, whether you like it or not, it is required of us to have 'total obedience to Llandaff'! And one man in Llandaff! The Pope has teams of Bishops and teams of laity to advise him, and to whom he listens,which seems more sensible than the alleged democracy of the GB.

The problem is that the Church in Wales has allowed one man to assume and to exercise papal authority to which nobody is entitled, and which he least of all deserves. Anglicanism is not the problem: what is going on isn't Anglican.

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